Islam’s democracy paradox: Muslims claim to like democracy, so why do they have so little?

Abstract

Islam, Muslim, Culture, Islamic heartland, Islamic democracy deficit, Islamic freedom deficit, Islamic religious freedom deficit,

Why Muslims like democracy yet have so little of it

“…It is just as likely, however, that repression causes people to understate their commitment to democracy. What is more, Rowley and Smith (2009) show that the positive relation between democratic attitudes and Islam exists not only at the country level but also at the level of individual Muslims. For these reasons, biases due to repressive environments likely do not cause the positive relation between Muslim identity and democratic attitudes.…”

“…On top of such general determinants of democracy, researchers have called attention to historical particularities such as colonial legacy (Anckar 2002;Clague et al 2001;Huntington 1984;Weiner 1987), religious background, and cultural traditions (Clague et al 2001;Huntington 1993;Inglehart 1988). In particular, Islam consistently shows up as a significant, negative factor in many empirical studies (Barro 1999;Fish 2002;Karatnycky 2002;Midlarsky 1998;Rowley and Smith 2009;Ross 2001). Several explanations have been proposed to explain this empirical regularity.…”

“…As an early example of this trend, Glahe and Vorhies (1989) show that Judeo-Christian liberal values are conducive to economic development. As part of this literature, several studies have focused on the impact of the Islamic faith on democracy (Karatnycky 2002;Midlarsky 1998;Rowley and Smith 2009;see also Inglehart et al 2002). This research has produced some supposedly paradoxical results.…”

“…The democracy paradox of Islam, according to Rowley and Smith (2009), is the fact that Muslim-majority countries tend to be significantly less democratic than other societies, although their citizens and, in fact, individual Muslims everywhere appear to entertain a more positive attitude towards democracy than others do.…”

“…These range from the absence of separation of church and state in Islam (Huntington 1993(Huntington , 1996; see also Minkenberg 2007), through gender inequality (Fish 2002;Inglehart and Norris 2003), to endowments of oil (Barro 1999;Ross 2001). As it turns out, material conditions such as the availability of oil and the associated inequality explain something, but do not take away the significantly negative relation between a Muslim background and democratic institutions (Barro 1999;Fish 2002;Rowley and Smith 2009). The answer thus seems to lie in beliefs and attitudes associated with Islam itself.…”